Auditory Processing Disorder

What's an Auditory Processing Disorder?

An auditory processing disorder (APD/CAPD) is a neurological based listening disorder. In APD, the ear may hear normally but the brain cannot process the information quickly or accurately enough to comprehend what was heard. APD can manifest itself in delayed auditory development, learning problems, and poor academic performance.

Some skills affected by APD include:
  • Sound localization and lateralization
  • Auditory discrimination
  • Auditory pattern recognition
  • Temporal aspects of audition including temporal integration
  • Temporal discrimination
  • Temporal ordering
  • Temporal masking
  • Auditory performance in competing acoustic signals
  • Auditory performance with degraded acoustic signals

Auditory Processing Disorders can be improved with a number of different therapies. The choice of therapy plan is dependent on the kind of APD that your child exhibits.

(Credit: http://www.ncapd.org/)